What is real time application?
A real-time application (RTA) is software that provides the end-user with real-time information updates as events happen or circumstances and conditions change. It processes and delivers data to users or other systems immediately or with minimal delay (latency)
Examples of real-time applications:
Parcel Delivery
Fleet Tracking
Taxi or Private Hire services (like Uber)
Food Delivery services (like restaurants & eats delivery or Postmates)
An initial information delivery route is created and provided to the customer. Updates to that route, such as traffic conditions causing a re-route or an update to the estimated delivery time, are provided to the customer live, as they change. Updates might be delivered as mobile push notifications, SMS messages and emails. Overall, real-time apps leverage a combination of technologies, architectural patterns, and optimization techniques to deliver instantaneous or near-instantaneous updates and interactions to users and to automated systems such as IoT devices.
How real time software work?
The above diagram shows a typical real-time delivery app with bidirectional communication between vehicles and clients (end users). Note that 3rd-party services are often used via real time integrations in real-time delivery apps to provide routing and mapping capabilities.
To learn more about how to create a real-time delivery application, please refer to our how-to create a real-time delivery app guide, which will walk you through the process and explain some typical software architectures.
How to Create a Real-Time Delivery Application
